By all means, do plant them in your garden now. Make sure you water them in well. Since it is so warm there, I'd provide them with some afternoon shade for about a week. Place a lawn chair over them or buy some shade cloth and rig up some stakes to attach it to. Since it is so warm, keep an eye on the roses so they don't dry out during the next week or two--but don't drown them either. That can kill them as easily as too little water can. You have some beauties there. Good luck! Kate

I spoke to DA just this morning. The nice Customer Service Lady said that its a good rose for my climate (very similar to the Pacific Northwest). She said that its a heathy rose but not so hardy if I lived closer to the sea. (There's a couple very, very small mountains between the sea and my garden so I'm ok) I also asked why its a lesser known variety. She answered a distinctive London accent, "it's just an older variety, we're not hiding it or anything. It's a lovely rose, beautiful cups with fewer petals so the rain doesn't affect them as much. It would do well for you in Donegal as long as your a bit inland from the coast." I hope that helps. I'm not sure what your zone is. M.

Since this thread has popped back up I should say that DA did replace the damaged roses and the replacements are awesome. I haven't seen any of the DA body bag type roses at our Whole Foods lately or anywhere else. If I saw some I would probably get some even though I definitely don't need anymore DA roses this year lol. I went ahead and ordered Lady of Shallot from DA because I really wanted that one and hadn't found it elsewhere grafted.

My wife and I grow a large variery of roses. We have found that in general David Austin roses require more spraying than othe varieties that are better acclimated to Florida. The grafting of plants onto Fortuniana root stock is to make up for the weakness in the root system of some roses. Unfortunately the academic types have used their lack of specific knowledge to proclaim that all roses grown in Florida be on Fortuniana. This is not the case. When growing in Florida many areas lack organic material in the "soil" Have a soil test done through your county co-operative extension so that you can amend the planting area as indicated. We like a deep bed of mulch around our plants We use 4-6" of wood chips or composted horse manure, both will add organic material over time. Some people prefer to grow in pots, this way you control the media that they grow in by using something such as Jungle Growth which is available at some Lowe's and Walmarts. The material is high in organic material and drains well. You might even want to use it when planting in the ground. We went through a number of plants before learning how to grow roses. It also took several years to carch on. You can do it and be successful. You might try some native roses in the future. You might also consider going to the Central Florida Heritage Rose Society meeting held monthly in Lakeland, FL.